FEELING BLUE

BIRMINGHAM CITY FANATIC KEITH DIXON RECALLS WHEN HIS FAVOURITES LAST FEATURED IN AN FA CUP FINAL...

- Keith Dixon

MENTION the 1956 FA Cup final and most people will recall it as the one in which Manchester City goalkeeper Bert Trautmann played on despite breaking his neck!

However, as a young Birmingham City fan at the time, it was more the disappointment of losing the showpiece game 3-1 at Wembley that sticks in the mind.

On May 5 this year, it will be 65 years since the Blues last graced an FA Cup final – and we’ve still never won it.

Things were a lot different back in the mid-50s of course. This was a time when television screens were only eight inches wide, there was only one recognised channel, the BBC (although ITV was launched in 1955), and it was only black and white. There was no need for a remote control as the only controls available were to alter the brightness and contrast!

Television coverage was live with no replays, no slow motion, no freeze framing and no punditry. You could watch the game as you would in the ground. The final was the only football match to be televised nationally and it attracted an audience of five million.

The players’ union negotiated a payment of £5 per player for appearing in a televised match, the first time such a payment had been made.

Birmingham City players signed an exclusive contract with the BBC so that they would not appear on any other television channel’s programmes leading up to the final.

The Blues were red-hot favourites to win the trophy and although there was no online betting or indeed betting shops in those days - we had to wait another five years for betting shops to be legalised - it was still possible to place a bet. The money was on a Blues win although they would have been odds on.